+1 The buildout approach was exactly what I was thinking when reading Nate's last email too, Steve :)
Niche/Type-of-Site/Industry-specific Distros are something we've talked about for a long time. I recall a few of us on this list doing so at a BoF at the Seattle Conference. But we didn't yet have buildout at that time - it seems like such a simple solution, but the tough part is, as you pointed out, we need to vet the add-ons that each cfg will list, and I suspect there could be some tug-of-war over which products are in/out. So, perhaps we could make use of the same type of voting system used for PLIPs before a new release of Plone comes out, where you get X votes to cast and have to rank your favorite products? Have it be a community effort, of course, but at the same time get results quickly. This (and then the testing/vetting) seem to be our only 'real' obstacles in getting the category cfgs as part of the installer/svn releases, right? -Ken Nate Aune wrote: >>> What would it take to bundle up some Plone add-ons and release it as a >>> PloneSocial distro? What add-ons should be included? Would you want to >>> lead the charge to put something together? >>> >> That could be as simple as creating a buildout extension configuration. >> >> In a sense, we now have included with our installers a "development" bundle >> aimed at add-on/theme level developers: >> >> http://dev.plone.org/plone/browser/Installers/UnifiedInstaller/trunk/base_skeleton/develop.cfg >> >> We could include a subdirectory of such extensions with the installers, but >> they would have to be generally agreed on and include absolutely no unstable >> or unreleased components. >> > > Of course, these add-ons would be carefully selected and vetted before > they would be approved to be included in the distribution. > > Steve - what would it take to identify 3-4 extension profiles, and > include them in the next release? > > PloneSocial - adds social networking functionality to your Plone site > (which add-ons are most mature?) > PloneMobile - adds mobile optimized features to your Plone site (go.mobile) > PloneMultiMedia - adds multimedia functionality to your Plone site > (collective.flowplayer) > PloneMultilingual - adds multilingual funcitonality (LinguaPlone) > > I think this would go a long way to making it easier for newcomers to > Plone to evaluate the rich ecosystem of add-ons for Plone without > having to troll through the 3,000 add-ons at plone.org/download trying > to find the best ones. > > I could also see a lot of value of making bundles targeting particular > vertical markets: > PloneEdu - faculty/staff directory, bibliography, subsites > PloneGov - forms (PloneFormGen) > PloneNpo - donation forms, volunteer signup (PloneFormGen) > > Imagine if you are from a university, government agency or non-profit, > and the first time you download Plone, there is an installer profile > made just for you, that guides you through the benefits of why Plone > is right for your particular industry and shows you the value-add of > these additional modules. I think this could be incredible beneficial > in helping Plone to get greater adoption in these markets. > > Nate > > _______________________________________________ Evangelism mailing list Evangelism@lists.plone.org http://lists.plone.org/mailman/listinfo/evangelism
